Crowdsourced Mugging Map Helps Keep UK Residents Safe

A new UK site puts muggings and street violence onto crowdsourced maps, creating a P2P information exchange that can inform decisions about personal safety. Created by nonprofit organization Witness Confident, StreetViolence.org launched this week initially for the capital city London. Information about the crimes is collated in one place allowing victims to alert the community, appeal for witnesses and thank passers-by who helped. Witnesses can give the police information about what they saw and the general public can use the site to see how safe the streets are.

The UK sees more than a million occurences of muggings or street violence every year and Witness Confident says that people’s fear of being mugged is seven times greater than the actual risk. StreetViolence.org potentially gives people the opportunity to follow a mugging they were the victim of, witnessed, or heard about, from the crime being reported through to the criminal being arrested, charged and prosecuted.